Excerpt from my NSLI-Y homework

Every day, I take a train for 20 minutes, and then a bus for another 15 to get to Wenzao with my host sister, Jubbie. The streets are filled with bikes, motorcycles, and cars, and there’s more fluidity between where people live (lots of apartments, we live on the 16^th floor of our building) and where people do their work/ buy their food and clothes. The shopping here is much cheaper than the United States; my host sister and I bought matching dresses for 12 dollars.

All of the NSLI-Y students take Chinese class for two hours a day at Wenzao. Though I studied Chinese for four years in high school, my class here is particularly conducive Chinese, because we hail from multiple nations. In my class, there are four American students, two Japanese students, one Mexican student, and one French student. Because not everyone speaks English, we use Chinese to communicate with each other and sharpen our language skills.

In the background, Ben and I are embracing. We’re celebrating Teacher Appreciation Day (September 28) with chocolate cake.

 


PS
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